St John’s ditch devolved to Valletta council, football club for car park

The Valletta local council has been granted the devolution of a site in St John’s ditch from the Lands Authority for the future development of a car park, local government and culture minister José Herrera has confirmed with MaltaToday.

Earlier this week the Valletta local council announced that it had entered into a partnership with Valletta FC to start a project that will see part of St John’s ditch area rehabilitated and transformed into an organised car park, first organised on one level, with a second level to be possibly added at a later stage.

According to Valletta mayor Alfred Zammit, the project will also include an escalator that will take people from the car park directly to South Street in the vicinity of the Osborne Hotel. The mayor said the idea for the project was born in 2013 when Herrera, a first district candidate, became parliamentary secretary for local government.

Quizzed by MaltaToday on the potential impact of the project on the fortifications and open spaces, Herrera replied that the project was still “at a very early stage” and no planning applications had been submitted.

But the space in question has been ‘ring-fenced’ for the collaborative project between Valletta Local Council and the Valletta Football Club.

Asked whether the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage has been consulted, Herrera replied that the authority can only grant its consent to the project after both the council and Valletta FC “present the necessary intentions and area impact assessment studies.”

“Therefore, at this very early stage, I was pleased to see two very important stakeholders in the Valletta community get together and work in synergy. Any permits required, are to be sought by the parts involved and should adhere to all planning and development laws,” the minister said.

The car park could reduce the number of cars circulating in the city in search of scarce parking spaces, although the idea of taking part of the ditch for a parking had stirred some controversy in the past.

World renowned architect Renzo Piano, who designed the City Gate project, earmarked the open space in the ditch for a public garden costing about €1.9 million. However, in July 2013, the Labour administration opted to shelve the garden to cut costs.

Subsequently a garden known as Gnien Laparelli was developed in the portion of the ditch visible from the City Gate entrance, between the St James and St John Cavalier branches of the fortifications.

In 2013 the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage objected to the creation of a three-storey car park in the St Andrew’s tenaille, which formed part of the Yellow Garage. The SCH expressed concern on proposed rock-cutting to create to create a pedestrian link to South Street.

In 2015, a car park in the ditch was re-proposed again as part of a €1 million fund for capital projects proposed by local councils. Former mayor Alexiei Dingli defended these plans, arguing that the car park which was proposed along part of the moat would not be visible from the capital’s main entrance. “You won’t see any cars from the bridge; there will be a garden there as planned,” he said.